Public Accounts Committee criticises diabetes care

A review of the state of diabetes care in England has been published It refers to “the witnesses from the Department and NHS England painted an unduly healthy picture of the state of diabetes services in England”. The Committee make makes recommendations which, if implemented, should improve the health and wellbeing of people with diabetes .

From a patient perspective, probably the most important statement made by the Committee is the confirmation that performance in delivering the nine care processes and achieving the three treatment standards has stalled.

IDDT fully supports the views and recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee and has issued the following statement:

InDependent Diabetes Trust comments on Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Review of Diabetes Care
We would like to congratulate the PAC on carrying out such a thorough review of diabetes care in England. We wholeheartedly agree with their conclusions. We believe that their recommended actions, if carried out, should certainly improve the health of people with diabetes and help to reduce their risk of long-term complications which, in turn, will reduce the NHS costs.

Indeed, many of the present failings in diabetes care were highlighted in our Report ‘Diabetes – Care in Crisis’ published in November 2015 as a result of our survey of members who live with diabetes. Again this highlighted the variation in care, the lack of accessible education programmes, the lack of podiatry services in many areas and many of the points made by the PAC. So we are sure that from their experiences, our members would agree that “the witnesses from the Department and NHS England painted an unduly healthy picture of the state of diabetes services in England”.

From a patient perspective, probably the most important statement made by the PAC is the confirmation that performance in delivering the nine care processes and achieving the three treatment standards has stalled. Unless serious steps are taken to remedy this, the health and wellbeing of people with diabetes will suffer now and in the future.

We call on the Department of Health, NHS England and Public Health England to follow the advice of the Public Accounts Committee Report.